Travis County Commissioners Court
January 27, 2009
Item 1
Number 1 approve proclamation recognizing the month of January 2009 as "mentoring month" in Travis County. Should we read the resolution or did you bring your own reader?
>> no, we would like for you to read it, judge.
>> it reads whereas January 2009 is national mentoring month, whereas student with mentors are 75% less likely to drop out of school, whereas schools with mentoring programs report 76% increase in student attendance rates, 84% increase in students passing classes, 60% decline in suspensions from school, 58% of students achieving higher grades, whereas students with mentors are 46% less likely to start using drugs, 27% less likely to start using alcohol, 33% less likely to hit someone, and whereas many opportunities are available to volunteer as a mentor, including Austin partners in education, www.austinpartners.org, the seedling foundation, www.seedlingfoundation.net, communities in schools, big brothers, big sisters and many, many more and now therefore be it resolved that the Travis County Commissioners court proper claims the month of January, 2009, as mentoring month in Travis County, Texas and encourage Travis County employees to participate and Travis County residents, right? To participate as a mentor while performing their county responsibilities. The employees. Move approval.
>> second.
>> good morning. Judge is commissions, thank you for proclaiming for the eight time January as the mentoring month in Travis County. I'm very pleased to introduce to you two of the organizations that Travis County has worked with over the past eight to ten years. On my left is sarah waxler, the executive director for the seedling foundation, on my right, kathryn brewer, executive director for the Austin partners in education, to her right christian al varado and page phillips with Austin partners in education. We have many, many students in Austin independent school district, manor independent school district, del valle school district and the other school districts in Travis County that the children need mentors. The -- the need for it outstrips the ability to provide mentors. And I personally, I know that these organizations sincerely appreciate the support that Travis County has made over the years in supporting mentoring activities with these high risk children. I don't know if kathryn would like to say a few words or sarey about their programs specifically. We do have the website and the phone numbers that were -- that are there available if people -- departments or individual employees or the general public, so kathryn?
>> sure. I would like to adjust a couple more statistics to bolster leroy's numbers. Also I would like to first thank leroy for being such an advocate for mentoring and supporting our schools. This is my fifth year actually being here of leroy's eight that he has been running this program. There are 50,000 high needs kids in Austin i.s.d. Of 80,000 students, we have a 62.4% poverty rate. We are able to serve right now, another wonderful statistic is of the 2500 kids who are in our classroom based tutoring program, we now have five to 10% more students passing taks through this program. So we have definitive results on a large scale and have the opportunity next year to actually serve many more thousands of students. Our goal is to actually have every student in second grade and every student in eighth grade in reading and math study groups and every student graduate from high school college ready. Our goal is to achieve that within the next five years. Thank you.
>> thank you, good morning. I would also like to echo my great appreciation, leroy nellis is a mentor's mentor. He is a huge advocate in our community for mentoring programs and helps us touch the lives of hundreds and hundreds of students. The seedling foundation's mentoring program serves children whose parents are incarcerated. I heard a keynote speaker recently say that hope is why poor children get out of bed in the morning. And if that's true, I believe that it is, then leroy and the 350 other mentors who are participating in our program are not only instilling hope, but we sincerely hope and believe helping to interrupt the intergenerational trajectory of incarceration, thank you for your support.
>> thank you.
>> how many mentors do we need?
>> we can use --
>> last year it was 5,000, right?
>> 50,000.
>> really.
>> we can use as many as individuals will volunteer. As kathryn indicated, we have a 62% poverty rate of approximately 85,000 students in the aisd. We also have manor independent school district, which has similar if not greater numbers of poverty and del valle as well. So there's an unlimited need for these mentors.
>> leroy, if -- if the viewing world this morning, if someone would like to become a mentor, is there a common phone number that they could call to say hey, I would like to volunteer and I would like to be a part of this? Do we have a number, an outreach type of number they can --
>> sure.
>> would you mind giving that number please.
>> the Austin partners in education, 637-0900.
>> repeat that, please.
>> okay. 637-0900. Or on the web, www.austinpartners.org. And there's a -- there's an application form right on the web online. It will automatically feed to the Austin partners in education. The seedling foundation their website is www.seedlingfoundation.net. Their phone number is 323-6371. Thank you.
>> no, thank y'all, thank y'all for doing a great job?
>> any other comments?
>> thank you all so much for your support.
>> thanks for y'all.
>> all in favor? That passes by unanimous vote.
>> [ applause ]
>> thank you.
The Closed Caption log for this Commissioners Court agenda item is provided by Travis County Internet Services. Since this file is derived from the Closed Captions created during live cablecasts, there are occasional spelling and grammatical errors. This Closed Caption log is not an official record the Commissioners Court Meeting and cannot be relied on for official purposes. For official records please contact the County Clerk at (512) 854-4722.
Last Modified:
Tuesday, January 27, 2009 2:03 PM